The books I've read & the movies I've seen

From IMDb: “Aspiring musician Miguel, confronted with his family’s ancestral ban on music, enters the Land of the Dead to find his great-great-grandfather, a legendary singer.”

Whenever a new Pixar movie comes out you can usually rely on them to provide an enjoyable movie experience. Even their weaker movies don’t leave you feeling like you’ve just lost ninety minutes of your life. “Coco” is the next offering from these masters of storytelling, and while it isn’t one of their best, in no way did it disappoint.

“Coco” tells the story of young Mexican boy, Miguel, who has a great passion to become a musician, despite the fact that his family believe that music is bad and will lead him to ruin. Then a small mishap leads Miguel into the Land of the Dead on the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead, and he has to find his way back into the Land of the Living before sunrise.

In true Pixar style the animation was wonderful, the storytelling way wonderful, the colour and music used in the movie were spectacular. I didn’t really understand the naming of the movie “Coco” at first, but as events in the movie unfold the naming of the movie becomes apparent. I felt as we were leaving that there was a hint of predictability to the movie, but while I was watching it I had no idea that the story was going to unfold in quite the way that it did.

Pixar have a way of tugging on the heartstrings (who can forget the first ten minutes of “Up”?) and touching on the idea of forgetfulness and memory loss in the aged in this movie was a wonderful way of introducing younger viewers to the darker side of life. There are also other darker themes which are touched on (to talk about them too much would give too much plot away) and again, Pixar is brilliant at handling these adult topics in a way that makes them accessible for the younger generation without talking down to them.

I’m not well versed in Mexican holiday or tradition, but that didn’t make the movie any less enjoyable for me. The themes and importance of the Day of Dead in Mexican culture was portrayed wonderfully not he screen, and if anything it made me kind of sad that we have nothing like this in British culture to appreciate our family members who are no longer with us. The movie was an emotional, colourful, musical piece of fun, and again, while not Pixar’s best, it is still a greatly enjoyable movie.